Doom
by J.A.Young
Summary: A story based off of doom 3.


Doom

By Justin Young

(This story is a work of fiction. All creatures, weapons and some characters were created and are property of id software. Any reference to actual people and events are completely coincidental. This is a fan fiction and will remain so unless I am given permission to publish this story by id. No part of this story is to be used without consent. This story is based off of all the Doom games by id, focusing mostly on Doom 3.)

Chapter

1

That was fun. Never in my life have I stowed away on a marine recon ship to Mars. I think I may have passed out five times (you know, due to lack of oxygen, and all that other fun stuff. I'm glad I had _some_ oxygen though). Luckily I had friends aboard the space vessel. Well, one to be precise. He's a cool guy named Neblin (Neb for short); he is an E-3, Private first class. And he is one of the National Guard members on this ship. We've got one squad; called the Black-hounds.

I bet you are wondering two things: one, what the heck drove me stow away on a Marine recon ship? And two, why the hells are the National Guard on a Marine space vessel? Answer one is simple. My girlfriend left me for a sweet talking ass-hole who promised his eternal love to her (If you knew this guy you'd say "like that'll ever happen." Considering the fact that he slept with, only God above knows how many other girls.) And my family booted me out because they said "Ace, you dress too much like a punk." (My father for you). I mean, sheesh, like a studded leather bracelet, a Disturbed shirt, a leather necklace with the Chinese symbol for tiger (my sign), baggy, black skater pants, and black shoes are too punk. Did I mention I have brown hair down to my shoulder blades? These two main things that I just stated are the big ones. I also wanted to see Mars up close.

Now for answer number two, I'm not so sure. I overheard a marine say something about a place on Mars for the civilians, and how the guard must help ensure its safety for the civilian arrivals. You see, the UAC is working on interstellar teleportation using some ancient Martian artifacts or lost technology or something. And a lot of the guys are nervous about this boss guy named Dr. Malcom Betruger. The way people talk about him behind his back make me think he's just another stuck up hard-ass. They say he is a demanding man, and is so impatient he makes an ADHD kid look calm.

I hope Sylvania won't fall for Zack's sweet talk to the point of screwing him. If I find out he did that to her I'll enjoy breaking his jaw. The sound of CRRNCHH! As my fist connects to his face will be quite pleasing. But let's enjoy Mars first then, shall we?

By all the turbulence I am expecting us to land on Mars soon.

As the shuttle rocked through the atmosphere, I heard a voice come over the loud speaker saying "All personnel please fasten your seat belts we are now entering Mars' Atmosphere."

Oh what Joy! I didn't have a seatbelt. And I had no military training whatsoever.

As the ship began to land, I was stuck in a space between two crates and under one other crate. I felt like puking, but hating the taste I held it down. At this point I felt my lungs and heart float up to my throat. Just like a roller coaster! After what seemed like an eternity of roller coasting downward holding what little food I ate earlier down, we finally landed on the Martian surface.

I think I passed out again because I woke up in a jail cell, for once. And my cell mate was none other than Neb. This was bad, very bad. I looked up to see him staring blankly at the wall toward the exit. The set-up was certainly futuristic looking, I mean with the sliding door and all…

"Ah. So you're finally awake. 'Bout time Ace." Neb spoke, as if he had rehearsed it over and over until it sounded right.

"Neb, what happened? Why are you stuck in prison with me?" I asked him

"I told them that I knew you were aboard. You were passed out when we found you. You are one lucky SOB. Any ordinary civilian without training would've died. God spared you. You were even fortunate enough to come out unscathed. You lucky bastard."

"But what about you? You're in hotter water, Right?" I asked him. He just looked over at me and smiled, saying how I was now his responsibility until they get a departure unit to take me back to Earth. As long as I didn't do anything else stupid, he'd get off the hook with a mere citation, and I'd get some jail time for trespassing on government property. It was only my first offense, so they figured a minimum of six months and community work.

"So, now I'm your prisoner? I wonder why they made one friend watch the other." I asked myself, only to have Neb answer me. "I am one of their most trusted soldiers. That and the fact that I didn't want them to put you in solitary confinement"

"My little stow away was that serious?" I asked him. "Yep" Was all he said.

"It's time to eat." Called a voice from the other side of the door. The door slid open and in came one of the marines, the uniform looked like that of a Master Sergeant.

"Ah, the stow away. You're fortunate that you are friends with private Kyter, if not, you would've been given a worse sentence." He then cuffed Neb and I together with handcuffs, "This will make sure you stay out of trouble 'baggage boy'. You two are free to roam the base, but you'll be 'accompanied' by us. It's time to eat; we're going to the cafeteria." I thought of this guy as a grade-one ass-hole. So what if he was a Sergeant, he didn't have to be a dick to civilians.

We went to the cafeteria, which is when I realized that I was getting _some_ freedom from jail confinement. I was thankful, well, as thankful as a prisoner can be.

I then turned to Neb and asked him a question, one that bugged me, "'Baggage boy'?"

"The nick name they gave you, seeing as you're extra, unwanted baggage," Neb explained. All I could muster was an "Ahh…" Well, at least he answered my question. We entered the cafeteria, or perhaps the term was 'mess hall', I forgot. The mess hall was bustling with Marines, scientists, National Guard, and even some _legal_ civilians.

At one of the tables in a corner was a big group of scientists, at least ten or so. At the head of the table was a very creepy individual. He was old and bald, his right eye was plain white while his left eye was normal, but his pupil was smaller than any I'd ever seen. He spoke in a low, raspy melancholy voice. Even though he was practically at the other end of the room with the commotion of a gathering of people of all races and ethnical backgrounds, I could just here the creepy scientist say, slowly but surely, "My fellow co-workers and subordinates, I have good news. The teleportation project is soon

near completion. Only a few more hours and all our hard work and effort will be _rewarded_."

At this point he held up a glass and made a toast to the completion of the project.

Call me paranoid, but I did not like how he said 'rewarded'. "Hey Ace, take a look over there." Neb said and he pointed out to the creepy scientist guy "They're having a toast. Must be some important person's birthday or something," He said.

"That, you maggots, is Doctor Malcom Betruger," Said the burly yet dick-headed Marine sergeant. "They must have finished the big project they were working on. Anyway, you green-thumbs sit here" and pointed to an empty table next to a partly open window, "I'll get your grub. You should be honored that I'm being so nice to you two shit wipes." He spouted. If only he could've overheard what I overheard. "You heard the man, get going you two," Said one of the two guards we were with, and if memory serves me right, he is also our jail guard. He was an underling, probably a PFC or something. He was a quiet one, only talking when spoken to. I asked him how we were able to breathe in this harsh environment and move about as if this was Earth's gravity. His reply was obvious, "You think we can reach Mars in under a month but not be able to recycle carbon monoxide into human-friendly air again; to not be able to make it human-friendly period? Boy have you got a lot to learn. We got generators that do these things on a regular basis. And say all the generators fail to function, we still have body gear that would help us breathe the Martian air."

That made sense. Just as we were finishing up Technological Achievements 101, Master sergeant 'Jack Koff' showed up, and slammed down our meals. The food looked like some monkey threw in some spices, herbs and shell noodles into a large pot of gravy, mixed them together and called it beef tortellini.

"You eat this slop on a regular basis?" I asked "What ever happened to MRE's ?"

"For your information 'baggage boy', we do. It has all the essentials in it and enhances performance. Show a little respect punk." Again with the punk! As I said before, I ain't no punk. I'm just showing off my individuality. And then he turned to the jail guard and ordered him to keep an eye on us and that he had better things to do than baby sit a PFC and a maggot civilian. His real name is Thomas Kelly, but that don't matter, 'cause I ain't ever gonna call'em that. He was such a jerk, so I figured, why should I?

We ate our meals in silence. The food wasn't as bad as it looked, but it was still pretty bad, I needed to add a lot of salt and pepper to make it taste as close to what it was supposed to as I could. After the meal, we were un-cuffed and thrown back in jail, well, at least I was. As I said before, Neb was the one who got off easy, not me. I was stuck in this cell with only one window, and by the looks of things, it was getting dark out. My retainer was an okay guard, he at least brought me the latest Playboy to read. Yes, you heard me right, to _read_. Now don't get me wrong, the pictures were not bad at all, nope… not…at…all…

Sorry about that.

As I was saying before I got side tracked, my guard was nice enough to let me talk to him and to get me reading material. There are other things to read than just _that_ people. Later on, about midnight or so I went to sleep. As I slept, I kept dreaming about Earth, about Sylvania Robbner, my ex-girlfriend sadly, and that bastard, Zack Baillon. How I missed Sylvania, but even more I missed my best buddy Trinity Lindermann. She may have been German, obsessed with vampires and Hellsing, but I loved her in my own little way, but her father disapproved of our friendship when he found out I'm 20 years old and am hanging out with his 17 year old daughter. That sucked big time.

In my dream I was home from my 'trip' to Mars and all three of them were there, but they didn't recognize me, when they saw me, they cowered in a corner, all three together, like a doggie pile almost. Zack was being a tough guy, while Sylvania and Trinity hid behind him. On the floor in front of me was a puddle. I looked at the puddle to see that my reflection wasn't my own, but of some insectoid creature. The eyes were red, and there were twelve of them, six on each side in symmetrical order. The creature was a dark brown color with leathery skin that was segmented like a bug's exoskeleton. Its nose and mouth was like how a human's skull was. The difference was that it had an extra set of canines on top and bottom that were twice as ling as a humans. It was a distorted form, almost like a starving Ethiopian man with muscles. It's hands were claws, inhuman, yet strangely humanoid. And its feet like a deer's, but big enough to look proportionate. The build was bipedal and medium sized just like a human. But then I found out that _I_ was that demonic beast.

The end of the nightmare was scary enough to snap me awake and into reality. I woke up in my prison bed all wet and cold. I slowly sat up in bed and shifted my legs to the bed's edge to touch the cool floor of the Martian base. I calmed down after about ten minutes. I then was startled by the sound of the sliding door opening as the hydraulics hissed.

"Get up maggot. Its shower time. The clothes you'll be wearing are standard military issue. We ran out of civilian clothes so deal with it. You wore that same getup for a month, so change and bath you small shit. Hell, I wish I knew why the doctor wants me to be so damn nice to you, scumbag." What a lovely wake up call from Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly. But at least I wasn't going to be cuffed to some guy as I went to the shower room. Instead I was escorted by some marine chick that looked like she could kick my ass from here to Earth. Though I must say she was a cutie. She had blonde hair, tied up (protocol you know), and a lovely face. Her eyes were hazel.

"Here's the men's shower room. Go in, bathe, and get out. Got it?" She ordered.

"Yes Ma'am. But shouldn't I get dressed before I get out?" I asked her, smartly.

"Just go!" she bellowed.

_I showed her_.

As I entered the shower room, I started to think to myself. _Why have I been so testy lately? I mean the privates are just doing what that jerk order's them to do. It's my fault for stowing away to begin with. Well in any case I just gotta last here for a few more hours before they decide to dispatch another ship to Earth. From what I hear that will be after they get the next shipment of troops in about 12 hours._ The men's shower room was empty except for me. I did have somewhat feminine features, even more so after I shaved off my facial hair. My eyebrows were rather thin naturally. I wasn't much into sports, but my body looked like I was. Five foot, eleven inches tall, 169 pounds. Yeah, I'm a skinny, yet muscular little thing.

I finished up and dried off. I threw on the new clothes and boy did I look like a marine. Just shave my head and call me private Digonez. I went back out to my guard. She just blushed when I walked out, though she tried to hide it. If her muscle tone didn't scare me so much I'd say she looked like a cute little school girl hiding a crush on some senior she liked for two years.

"So…what's your name soldier" I asked her. She looked at me and said "I'm Lance Corporal Shandel Delorres. Why? You are leaving in twelve hours. You don't have time to make friends kid." She had a point. I _was_ leaving in twelve hours. And maybe it was for the better, I didn't know. But I can say this, she was interested in me. How did I know? Well on the way to breakfast, she volunteered to be my cuff buddy and she kept looking at me from head to toe from the corner of her eyes. At one point as I walked, she tripped and fell to the floor with her landing on top of me.

"Hey! Be careful girl!" I said. She just looked up at me with a dumb-founded look. "You can't tell me you're that blonde. Are you?"

"No! I just wasn't paying attention, that's all!" she cried defensively.

And then, over the loud speaker, called the voice of that ass-hole Sgt. Kelly,

"Ace Digonez, report to Betruger's office ASAP! Your 'cuff buddy' will take you there."

I never saw a marine as terrified as Shandel to take a prisoner to the mad scientist's office. The look in her eyes actually gave me chills up my spine.

"Let's…go." She ordered me, hoarsely. After going through a series of corridors, we came to Betruger's office. Waiting at the door were two guards, and on the other side of the door, I heard voices, three of them, but none sounded familiar to me. The sound was muffled as well, so I only picked up four things, "Counselor Swann", "Officer Campbell", "Bio-Force gun", and "amazing thing will happen here soon". Then no sooner does that last part end, when a tall bald guy with glasses and a black suit, and a smaller, stronger blonde guy with a huge-ass suitcase in marine combat armor, come out of the small office.

"We'll be watching you Betruger." stated the bald guy. Then he turned around and left. Shandel un-cuffed me and said to me "Here, n-now go. That's the doctor." She was terrified of the little, weak, scientist freak. _I wonder if that guy did any thing to her. She could kick his ass easily, so why is she so terrified of him?_ Then she hurried off. That's when he turned to me and with an eerie smile said to me, "So you are the alleged trespasser? I figured you'd be more masculine, but no matter. Please, enter my office, we have…much to talk of." I went in to his office, and had a look around; there was a desk in the middle of the room. To the left were two black leather chairs (computer style), and to the right was a more comfortable looking chair. At the far end, there were strange writings and runes. Any normal person wouldn't take notice to the writing right away.

"So young man, why are you here?" He asked, closing the door behind him as he locked it. _Now_ I was getting nervous.

"Why--Why do you care? I'll be leaving soon anyway," I responded.

"Because I want to know what drove you to do such a stupid thing as sneak aboard an A-Class Phantom recon ship. It's dangerous up here for _kids_. You have any idea how many of our 'young bloods' requested off this fascinating planet? Well, do you?"

"No, I don't. Fill me in Doc."

"542 men and women. For those as incompetent as you, that's a lot of people. But seeing as you have come here of your own free will, I will hear your story, child. As arrogant and defiant as you are, you may yet prove useful to me." Betruger said, mildly.

"That's just creepy," I blurted out thoughtlessly, "no offence, doc." I then added

"You are a spry one aren't you?" he shot back. "Have a seat…_Ace_. You will learn respect for your elders. And the torture you will soon receive will be your teacher."

"Wait? What do you mean? What're your sick twisted plans?" I roared.

"It's like boot camp you fool! It's nothing sick you disgusting child! Are all your minds in the gutter nowadays? I'm trying to help you get out of your sentence. Show some gratitude brat!" demanded Betruger. This startled me--a lot.

"Why would you do that for me? Especially after all the shit I've caused?"

"Because I need a '_guinea pig_', if you will. The reason I said its like boot camp is because you'll be put to work in the Delta Labs. There is a big experiment and we need able bodies to truck around the equipment, then you'll be sent to a boot camp on Earth for a year. After that, you'll be free to go about your life." Betruger explained. But the whole time, I felt a deceptive vibe coming from him.

"Now tell me why you're here, before I change my mind."

"Personal issues, that's why." I answered.

"Ah, I see…" he hissed, "…rejected by family? The betrayal of a dear loved one perhaps? Is that it? Or is it for other, _personal_ reasons? Please explain…"

"Yeah…" I stated suspiciously "…how did…"

"...I guess?" he interrupted. "I've been a kid too; I suppose you could say I have a _gift_ to read people. Even the younger ones. Now come, we've got work to do."

"By the way… have you had any type of training whatsoever? It's odd that none of the other troops couldn't detect you on the ship. Especially the landing of the craft. You came out unscathed. How is this so?" he then added.

"I was trained in the art of Ninjutsu-ryu for two years. And an additional three years in Iaido." Was my response.

He unlocked the door and led me to the Delta Labs complex, where from my understanding; they are experimenting with teleportation and genetic engineering. After arriving, they briefed me on what goes were. The work lasted at least for ten hours, which meant two hours to get back, get ready, and goes home. As I was about to leave, I was grabbed by two guards. "Hey! I need to get back to get ready to go! The Doc said so!" I protested.

"Don't worry Ace; you'll be _going_ soon enough, but first watch as we start up the portal! Be awed by my genius! And you will have the best seat in the house! Right at the entry!" and then the doc started to laugh diabolically. The guard cuffed me and took me straight to the arch that was the portal's entry point. There, I noticed the same runes were etched into the floor as were in his office! I then realized that they were satanic runes, and a pentagram. That old bastard planned to _sacrifice_ me! This was not just any portal, but was a gate to the abyss!

He turned on the generators and began to suck up all the power to open the portal, at this point, a wave of vile, dark energy rushed throughout the whole complex, and I was right there. The portal opened straight on top of me, through the runes. I found myself levitating in the column of raw demonic energy. The pain seared through me like a torrent of fire and acid. The pain was unbearable. The last words I said before being sucked into the void, before losing all consciousness were, "Lord Jesus, save me please!"

Chapter

2

I awoke to find myself being underneath a pile of rubble, how I survived was beyond my understanding. Maybe Neb was right; the big guy upstairs has blessed me and kept me safe. I got up slowly to see what had happened, and to my horror, I found that most of the building was still intact. But the dead littered the floors, and claw marks were everywhere, followed by splatters of blood that would make the Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like a field of flowers! Whatever was unleashed is roaming these corridors and all I have are Ninjustsu and my bare hands. I think it best to find some fire power, or something remotely close to an ancient weapon.

I noticed that I was still hand-cuffed and also that the satanic scientist with the keys was gone. To the left and right the exits were covered by rubble or just plain locked. I was a sitting duck with no PDA and no security clearance. Luckily, though, the portal was closed and non-operational. Whatever came out required a lot of energy, and probably couldn't pass through with the energy used to open up the gate. Then it struck me, Doctor Betruger was looking for more power! That had to be the reason he left, so he could find more power to do this again and to stabilize the gateway.

But I was still bound by these damn cuffs. I plopped onto the floor to think of a way to free myself and hunt down that truly mad scientist. As I sat, I realized that my senses seemed to have become more acute because I heard footsteps coming from down a nearby corridor. The door was straight ahead, though locked. The way to get to the door was to go to a platform, roughly three feet up so it probably wasn't too hard to jump up onto it from the floor. And there was also a small cubby hole that you could shove equipment inside, or use it to hide beneath. Well it sure was dark enough to!

I decided to be lazy and took the stairway up, instead of jumping it. The railing was still intact surprisingly. As I made my way to the door to listen in, I heard more footsteps from behind the door. It sounded like a human, soldier maybe? Then the light on the door turned green and slid open. Behind the door was a soldier! And he looked beat. His skin was wet with sweat, and it was almost a pale, gray color. He didn't sound winded though. His helmet was off, revealing his shaven head. His face was down and veiled in shadow as well, so I couldn't make out his expression.

"Hey. What's going on here? What happened to the labs? Is everyone okay?" I asked the man. All I got in response was a low gurgling sound coming from him.

"Dude? What's up? Tell me!" I asked him. Then to my horror, he raised his head. I slowly inched back to the railing. His lower jaw was missing. His eyes burned with the very fires of Hell, dancing like little flames in his sunken eye sockets. Blood poured from the gaping wound that was once his lower jaw.

"W-w-w-what the fuck are you? Y-you're not human. Y-you're dead. You're a fucking animated corpse! Oh dear God, what's going on here? Oh God…" I said trembling. This was like a nightmare, a _real_ nightmare. I was so terrified, that if I hadn't crapped before my shower I would've now. This, this thing was a walking dead man. And if that wasn't enough of terror for one day, it raised a semi-automatic pistol to my head, a 9 mm, if I'm not mistaken (I mean, I wasn't exactly trying to spot the model number as much as, say...I don't know...live?). I was at least two feet away from the abomination, when he pulled the trigger.

That is when the luckiest thing happened, my head tilted back (as a reflex) and my hands went up. The bullet struck the chain to my hand-cuffs and shattered the link, thus freeing my encumbered hands. As my head was tilted back, I lost balance, falling back on the railing almost as if I did a back flip, and I felt the tip of my combat boot catch on his upper jaw, and the momentum of falling let me kick'em in the head. His head swung back, and I landed on all fours and darted for that dark cubby hole. I made it in and hid well, being one with the darkness. The corpse came _running_ down the stairs, and was searching all around. _Since when do zombies run? The movies always made them shamble. This is bad, really bad. Oh God! Neb and Shandel are still somewhere in this house of horrors! Please God, make them be alive and taint-free!_

After about ten minutes of searching, he came to the last place to be searched, my cubby hole. The damned beast actually knelt down. He was going to look for me in here! _That son-of-a-bitch, he's coming in. Gotta think fast!_ Then it came to me. _The air vent!_ There was an air vent under here. But I could only go partway due to my size, but it was good enough to hide me deeper in the shadows, at least till he left. As the beast came closer to look in, I went to work right away on my plan. I got on my belly and went in feet first. My arm snagged something and cut me. Lo and behold, it was the vent cover.

_Shit! But now I can hide myself better._ The cut throbbed painfully, and I managed to 'bite my tough' and not make a sound. And then the corpse got to eye level with me, and luckily, for me, I put on the vent before it noticed me. It peered in with those demonic eyes of his. It went into the cubby hole, looked around a bit. Then decided to leave. _It didn't see me. Thank God! But how will I get passed it? It's still standing there! Now what?_ It was becoming clear to me that it wasn't going to leave without killing me first. I was trying to figure out if I should fight it head on, or wait till it goes off somewhere so I can sneak away from it. _An opening!_ This was my chance to do something that I hadn't planned on. It had its back to me, and was standing, staring at the portal like a stoner at a laser show.

_Now's my chance!_ I slowly removed the ventilation cover and set it down quietly, as to not make a sound. Then I crawled out and examined my surroundings. The monstrosity was a good two feet away from the platform. I stopped to listen for others. There was silence. _Good nothing else around here._ I got to my feet and silently approached the zombie creature. _So far, so good. Just a little closer .._I inched toward it, reached out my hands, and did the most disgusting thing you could imagine.

I grabbed the corpse and snapped its neck. The thing fell to the floor with a loud _THUUD!_ I was so disturbed by this that I turned my head and puked. The swirling pool of blood just made it all the worst. After vomiting stomach acid and some left over 'beef ravioli', I did yet another disgusting thing, and looted the body.

At this point, I was blood covered and hoping to Heaven that I'd find a working sink with clean water to wash my hands--even a canteen of water would be nice.  
First, I'd wash out my mouth, and then wash my hands. But my spoils were worth it. I found a PDA with security clearance codes, his 9 mm and three clips of ammo, a combat knife, and finally a flashlight. The flashlight was made of some odd new material. It never goes out and doesn't need to be charged. It was also good for a club, should the need for one arise. After that run-in, I wondered what other hellish creatures awaited me.

There I stood, at the doorway, focused and primed for action. The portal was now behind me, and the door in front of me. The same door that the corpse had come through. I pushed the 'open' button on the touch-screen monitor. The red light turned green and opened the door in front of me. The door slid open, revealing a massacre worthy of that title. Blood was everywhere, mixed with dead bodies and missing parts. On the walls, some twisted person or demon wrote, **"burn**, **suffer**, **death**, and **destruction"** in the blood of their victims.

The lights in the room flickered off and on as electricity tried to flow through the fluorescent tubes of now dying light. And in the dark, I could've sworn I saw another corpse, one with a chainsaw. But as soon as the lights went on it went away. _Was I hallucinating just now?_ I pondered. But I continued to keep walking, I had to find Neb, he is my best friend after all. And that Shandel girl, as much as I resented having her as my 'cuff-buddy', I had to find her too. She grew on me, and besides, she was only following orders that were given to her. And who knows? Maybe we'll hook up. She can't eat and breathe military day in and day out can she? Hell, I bet that if she wasn't a marine, she could be the coolest person ever!

Then I heard it--I didn't want to believe it, but I definitely heard it that time. The unmistakable revving of a chainsaw. Coming from up ahead, around the corner. I readied my pistol and stealthily made my way to the corner, and pressed my back against the wall, side-stepping to the corner. I looked over to see what was going on. To my disgust, I saw a large man, his back to me, jerking a rope or chain, couldn't tell which it was, until a motor roared at full speed. As the chainsaw roared, splats of blood sprinkled the walls and ceiling. Then, it turned to my direction.

His face was more of a skull, with the same burning eyes as the other corpse. His muscles were almost showing, almost like he was skinned. His pants were military issue, but his hair was long and defied protocol. He must've been a worker, not a soldier by the looks of it. He turned and started to walk my way, chainsaw ready, teeth bared, eyes glowing, and tendons squirting blood from his raw, exposed muscles. _Does he know I'm here? Or is he just hunting?_ I asked myself, only to find out that there was a man crawling away from the big zombie creature. The man's legs were disembodied and as he crawled, he was emitting cries of terror and whimpers of pain. But still very alive.

"Hey leather face! Over here you piece of undercooked meat!" I shouted, and fired the pistol. The bullet struck the corpse in the gut. It looked and held its gut. Then it decided to charge me with that chainsaw of his. It came full tilt at me and swung it. The blade grazed my chest, but not anything deep, and then swung at my neck. I ducked and kicked it in the shin. That worked well to knock the big lug off balance and it knelt down, but brought the chainsaw down at my head. I don't know how it happened, but he missed me and I was a foot away from where I was, almost parallel to the same spot. It then swung the chainsaw upwards and came down at me diagonally. It cut me hard this time, on my arm and chest but I dodged in time to stay in one piece.

The wound was at least half-an-inch deep and a foot long. I rolled with that hit and swung my pistol right at his right temple and fired point blank at its head. The end result was a decapitated monster and a colorful display of gray, red, and…black? Since when is blood black? Well no matter, the man was dying, and I had to try and save him. I ran up to the man and asked him:

"Where's the nearest infirmary! You need medical treatment now!"

"Y-you killed it! But how? You're one of them aren't you? AREN'T YOU?" he shrieked. "You won't take me alive! You won't drag me to Hell, you bastard! I won't let you!"

"I'm here to help you! Hurry or you'll die! For the love of God listen to me! I am not lying!" I told the man. He was now on the floor with his back against the wall, staring at me terrified. As I moved closer to him, he began to weep. He kept crying till he fell limp and unconscious. I felt for a pulse, but it was too late for him, he died near the brink of life. Sad really, if only I could have helped, we both would have been fixed up and 'safe'. I took his shirt and did the best I could do to make a bandage to at least stop the bleeding. I got his PDA and ammo as well, along with a backpack and a grenade.

Something told me I was gonna need all the ammo I could get. You know, with zombies running amuck and that strange dream I had, I'm really starting to freak out.

I got up from the floor and looked over my surroundings. I looked up at the signs to see where I was. 'Delta 4 Main Ready Room' is the sign I noticed flashing in green. Then I looked at the dead man's name. His name was Jack Gilbert and his PDA had some e-mail. In the e-mail, it read that the cabinet code for locker 104 has been changed to 579. As I read on, I found out that they had to change it because some of the people were going insane. So I did the most logical thing I could think of, I went to the next room looking for the cabinet in hopes of finding more sufficient firepower.

18


End file.
